Blank Pictures On a Milk Carton - Part One

Who the heck are these people?

Who are these 64 alleged "Citizen’s Task Force" stakeholders?  Unfortunately, it's another long story told over two parts.

 

List of "possible" Citizen’s Task Force committee members received under FOIA Request: 20180807-002 through FOIA Request: 20180807-007.

Lisa Ahmed Andrea Bateman Vicky Benziger Pearlie Best Yvette Borrego Bree Jordan Burkett Ron Burton Manuel R. Bustos, Jr. Pam Carmona Lou Centrella Kathleen Christopher Erin Doerr Stephanie Duckman Carla Flores Kelly Foersterling Dean Giavaras Walter Gluzkin Mandy Griffin Barb Grooms Marianne Gudmundsson Maureen Hartwig Iris Hernandez Amy Hoffman John Jekot Marty Joyce Jerry Kallio Namon Kent Larry Kolar Dean Krone David Lawrence Paul Leongas Wendy Locascio Mary Maestranzi Jean Marella Amy Markos Kristy Mattson Ryan McKenzie Loula Merkel Lara Miller Elena Miteva John Moran Beth Morley Midge Mountin Denise Parcell Eleni Patel Dean Patras Frank Ponticelli Jamie Purcell Sriram Ramakrishnan Emma Rentas Dan Schacke Pat Schreiber Amy Seely Tim Spiegel Jeffrey S. Spero Sean Story Jan Vander Carr Joe Weber Stacey Wesselkamper Kent Wehman Scott Williams Kate Zarish Krystal Zec Sue Zimmerman

We are told by D207 leaders that 40+/- of the people displayed on the list above are the very folks who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Wallace and recommended to our wise and dependable elected officials that they should "...place a $195,000,000 bond issue for the November 6, 2018 election."

These intrepid few met four (4) times, according to the Districts website. We are told they took building tours.  We suspect the tours alone took a lot of their limited time. 

The website also tells us that committee members reviewed the recently created $150,000 Wight Facilities Master Plan or FMP. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wight FMP is a 405 page tome!  

I can tell you without fear of contradiction, there's no way in hell the committee of 40 laymen and women, meeting within a highly structured and limited timeframe,  over no more than only four nights at different school locations, are going to intelligently walk through that 405 page detail study, let alone, understand the complexity and implications of the tasks being presented . 

This ad hoc, ragtag group of amateurs, lacked the facilities management skill set and experience, to properly synthesize the data. 

Even though we knew what we were looking at,  and even though we had a good idea how to analyze that monster, it took all of 40+ hours unpack and parse it for analysis.   

 

District leaders, including current Board President, Carla Owen and her subordinate, Superintendent Dr. Wallace, surely have quite a sense of humor to so blatantly foist that absurd story on the voters.

 

Unfortunately for them, we're not laughing!

 

At the same meetings, we are told some of those 40+/- reviewed "survey results from students, staff and community members."  Of course they did.  I for one believe they all completely understood everything.  Not!

 

The website went on further to declare, they "were asked to make a recommendation to Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Wallace about whether or not to pursue a referendum and if so, the composition of the final measure. "  

What question were these souls asked to vote on?  How was the question structured.  Of course, we have no idea who voted or how the vote went.  Did anyone vote "NO"? 

As far as the "composition" of the Referendum, how did these scapegoats, unfamiliar with all the details and background, compose anything?  These guys were duped into believing their inclusion into the process, was going to be meaningful and make a difference.  The decision to go for the gold was made years before. 

The "Citizens Task Force" concept is a ruse!  It's meant to give the public a feeling of inclusion.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  The same methodology has been in use by other School Districts in Illinois since the early 2000's.  I know, I was a member of one prior to EMSD63 last referendum.  Glance around the web.

We are told next "This team included more than 40 residents from Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Glenview and Morton Grove."  District 207's website never mentions the Unincorporated Cook County Taxpayers living north of Dempster.  I guess they weren't invited to join this august group.  I wonder why? 


Finally, we are told that those listed among the chosen. "included retirees, civic leaders and District graduates, in addition to current parents and parents of graduates". 

I know a couple local politicians included on the list.  There are also a couple D207 teachers. That teacher category not being mentioned as part of the chosen, clearly was just a type-o. 

So do you have questions?  I know we certainly have questions. 

How were the 64 members found? Did they volunteer? Were they asked by District’s officials to join? Were they Shanghaied? What are their backgrounds?  Wheat towns to they live in?  How well do these 64 people represent the broad spectrum of D207 Taxpayers? Are they parents? Who of these are teachers or administrators or non-administrative employees of D207? Who are non-parent citizens? Who of these represent community organizations or potential referendum related contractors? How well do these 64 people represent the broad spectrum of D207 Taxpayers? Who of them represented your interests and/or your point of view?

For the last month or so, we've been trying to get answers under FOIA rules to some of these questions.   To date, we've been stonewalled by D207 leaders. 

Of all the questions we've posed to D207 under FOIA, the repeatedly unanswered questions of the Citizen Task Force membership and meeting attendance data, beyond that raw list of names displayed at the top of this post, makes one wonder what D207 is hiding.  At this point this Taxpayers wondering what those tens-of-thousands of Board sanctioned PR dollars really bought us. 

 More on this ongoing story in Blank Pictures On a Milk Carton - Part Two.